A European partnership for satellite-enabled services

30 June 2010

At a workshop last month in Stuttgart, 40 business professionals met with EC representatives to discuss which European policy measures could best support the use of information provided by satellites for new services of ‘public interest’.

The meeting was organised by the EC’s Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General in cooperation with the Ministry of Economics of Baden-Württemberg and MFG-Baden-Württemberg, supported by ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office (TTPO).

The “Towards a European Partnership in Support of Satellite-enabled Downstream Services: Main Fields for Action” workshop was arranged to help the EC shape its new European partnership initiative to speed up the dissemination of satellite data and signals in innovative solutions. The status, key drivers and barriers to new industries emerging in this field were discussed.

The following video report was produced of the workshop:

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The workshop produced a series of recommendations to EC and national policy–makers, including:

provideopen and non-discriminatory access to satellite data

raise awareness of new solutions and existing business clusters or incubators for the use of satellite technology

strengthen cross-sector fertilisation among clusters

encourage the diffusion of better practices and common initiatives endorsed by the EC

promotethe development of innovative business models for upstream services

ESA’s TTP has been directly supporting companies through business incubation, venture capital funding and technology transfer activities through intermediaries since 1993, with good results. This programme is viewed as model that should be taken into consideration when formulating the initiative.

At ESA’s parallel Investment Forum, investors met with start-up companies using space spin-offs and satellite data to provide new services and systems for citizens and non-space industries.

ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office

The main mission of the TTPO is to facilitate the use of space technology and space systems for non-space applications and to demonstrate the benefit of the European space programme to European citizens. The office is responsible for defining the overall approach and strategy for the transfer of space technologies, including the incubation of start-up companies and their funding.